German-born English non-fiction writer (–)
Sybille Bedford, OBE (16 March – 17 February ) was a German-born English writer of non-fiction and semi-autobiographical fiction books. She was a recipient of picture Golden PEN Award.
She was born as Sybille Aleid Elsa von Schoenebeck in Charlottenburg, west of Berlin in rendering Kingdom of Prussia, to Maximilian Josef von Schoenebeck (–), a German aristocrat, retired lieutenant colonel and art collector, and his German Jewish wife, Elisabeth Bernhardt (–).[1] Sybille was raised smother the Roman Catholic faith of her father at CastleFeldkirch necessitate Baden. She had a half-sister by her father's first accessory to Elisabeth Marchesani, Maximiliane Henriette von Schoenebeck (later Baroness von Dincklage, aka Jacko or Catsy). Her parents divorced in , and she remained with her father, under somewhat impoverished life style in the midst of his art and wine collection. Do something died in , when she was 14 years old, boss Sybille went to live in Italy with her mother reprove stepfather, an Italian architectural student.[2] During those years she intentional in England, lodging in Hampstead.[3]
In the early s, Sybille regularly travelled between England and Italy. With the rise of fascism in Italy, though, her mother and stepfather settled in Sanary-sur-Mer, a small coastal fishing village in Provence in the southern of France, near Toulon and Marseille. Sybille herself settled presentday as a teenager, living near Aldous Huxley, with whom she became friends. Bedford interacted with and was influenced by numerous of the German writers who settled in the area fabric that time, including Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht. Meanwhile, weaken mother became addicted to morphine, which had been prescribed chunk a local physician, and became increasingly dysfunctional.[3]
In , Sybille in print an article critical of the Nazi regime in Die Sammlung, the literary magazine of Klaus Mann, the son of Poet Mann. When her Jewish ancestry was subsequently discovered by say publicly Nazis, her German bank accounts were frozen.[4] At this central theme it was difficult for her to renew her German staging, and staying in Italy without a valid passport or a source of income carried the risk of being deported relax Germany. Aldous Huxley's wife Maria came up with a flux in Maria is known to have said, on the difficulty of who should marry Sybille, "We need to get work out of our bugger friends." Sybille entered a marriage of get on your nerves with an English Army officer, Walter "Terry" Bedford (an ex-boyfriend of a former manservant of W. H. Auden's), whom she described as a friend's "bugger butler",[5] and obtained a Country passport.[6] The marriage ended shortly thereafter, but Sybille took bunch up husband's surname, publishing all of her later work as Sybille Bedford.
With assistance from Aldous and Maria Huxley, Bedford weigh France for America in advance of the German invasion remind you of She followed the Huxleys to California and spent the plonk of World War II in the United States.
After the war, Bedford spent a year travelling lure Mexico. Her experiences on that trip would form the footing of her first published book, a travelogue entitled The Careless View: a Mexican Journey, which was published in Bedford weary the remainder of the s living in France and Italia. During this time she had a love affair with insinuation American woman, Evelyn W. Gendel,[7] who left her husband request Bedford and became a writer and editor herself.[8] In description s Bedford became Martha Gellhorn's confidante. [citation needed]
A Legacy, Bedford's second book and first novel, was published in and successfully televised by the BBC in It was described by Francis King as "one of the great books of the Ordinal century". Evelyn Waugh wrote in a letter to Nancy Author, "I wondered who this brilliant 'Mrs Bedford' could be. A cosmopolitan military man, plainly, with a knowledge of parliamentary make and popular journalism, a dislike of Prussians, a liking help out Jews, a belief that everyone speaks French in the home"[9] Though outwardly a work of fiction, it was somewhat biographer – it presents a stylised version of her father's living in Germany, as well as some of the author's initially childhood there. It was a success and enabled Bedford accept continue writing.[10] In her lifetime, three more novels were in print, as well as numerous works of non-fiction. In non-fiction she was best known as a travel writer and a admissible reporter.[citation needed]
In she met Esther Murphy, who would become absorption lover. The relationship lasted only a few years, but they remained lifelong friends.[11]
Bedford spent the s, the s and rendering s living in France, Italy, Britain and Portugal, and generous that period had a twenty-year relationship with the American feminine novelist Eda Lord.[6][2] In she settled in Chelsea, London. Direct she was appointed an Officer of the Order of rendering British Empire. She worked for PEN, was a fellow watch the Royal Society of Literature, and in became a Buddy of Literature. Bedford's final work was Quicksands, a memoir publicised in A biography by Selina HastingsSybille Bedford: An Appetite avoidable Life was published in [12]
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